In the past two months the Cincinnati Art Museum (953 Eden Park Dr., Eden Park) set a record in attendance with 42,849 visitors from the beginning of September to the beginning of November (compared to 32,272 last year). Out of acknowledgement and gratitude, the CAM is offering a day of free parking this Sunday. Paired with the always-free admission, it is the cheapest (but also among the most enriching) thrills to be found in Cincinnati this weekend.

CAC revs up Rosson Crow's new motorcycle-themed exhibition

With the opening last week of its newest exhibition, 'Rosson Crow: Myth of the American Motorcycle,' the Contemporary Art Center is drawing regional attention to another rising star who produces art-history savvy works with heavy doses of A-list glamour and the red-and-black color schemes of revolutions and rebels. Crow's series of brand-new paintings is paired with a set of actual bikes, each with personalized and highly detailed custom-paint jobs.

With the opening last week of its newest exhibition, 'Rosson Crow: Myth of the American Motorcycle,' the Contemporary Art Center (CAC) is drawing regional attention to another rising star who produces art-history savvy works with heavy doses of A-list glamour and the red-and-black color schemes of revolutions and rebels.
Crow's series of brand-new paintings considers the imagery and culture of motorcyclists in America. Her work is paired with a set of actual bikes, each with personalized and highly detailed custom-paint jobs.

This Friday, CS13 opens the first exhibition in their new space on 1420 Main St., an installation entitled 'c.r.' by longtime CS13 collaborator Arthur Menezes Brum. Drawing from the complex cultural histories of crickets, Brum presents a minimalist, ready-made installation piece in which the subject of crickets is "quantified, priced, and packaged, creating a tension between the metaphorical potential of the work and the product's objective economic reality."

Deb Brod, Kate Kern and Migiwa Orimo divide up the Art Academy of Cincinnati's Pearlman Gallery for its current exhibition 'SAVED.' The salvation referenced in the show's title is apparently community — the connective thread through the three artists' work is the interactive elements that invite viewer participation. Check it out 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday through Nov. 12.

Ann Hamilton exhibition comments on the process of reading

Ann Hamilton's current exhibition at Carl Solway Gallery, titled 'reading,' uses prints, sculptural objects and video to represent reading as a creative rather than a passive act. This exhibition is not one of the multimedia installations for which Hamilton is internationally famous but nonetheless features some of the artist's recurring themes.

Doesn’t it feel like Final Fridays get better in the fall? This Friday should be no exception, with (among other things) Evan Carroll — an MFA candidate at the University of Cincinnati — presenting a solo exhibition at Museum Gallery/Gallery Museum, imaginative new paintings by Michael Stillion at 1305 Gallery and an exhibition of new work by Meghan Robson at Creative Gallery.

Cincinnati and surrounding area is home to many venerable art and craft fairs and, really, few things say autumn to me more than troves of handiwork and baked goods. One I've just learned about is at Villa Madonna Academy in Villa Hills. Now in its 13th year, Saturday's fair will feature more than 70 artisans and vendors with jean jackets, hand-crafted rosaries, paintings, photography, hand-sewn items, jewelry and lots of Christmas and other holiday decorations.

In 'Ascending Horizons,' one of three exhibitions currently on view at the Weston Art Gallery, Cedric Michael Cox presents a densely hung, ambitious collection of paintings and the interesting drawings that accompany them. The gallery is packed, echoing Cox’s iconography of boxes, grids and architectural motifs Cox uses to interpret the Italianate architecture of Over-the-Rhine that inspires him.

Two projects are currently on view at Aisle: Tony Luensman's 'Lift' and Paul Coors' 'The Squeakquel.' Luensman's framed works, photographic print and sculptural installations deal with transcendence but are complicated with elusive formal aspects of the work and symbols for problems with access. Coors' series of diptychs pair smoky-looking prints are made with wax and plaster plates with movie posters that draw from recognizable blockbusters but combine the imagery with personal snapshots. Through Oct. 29.